Jardine Babies R Us Crib Recall Expanded

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced yesterday that Jardine Enterprises is expanding their Babies ‘R’ Us crib recall which was originally issued in June 2008. An additional 56,450 cribs are being recalled, bringing the total number of cribs which could pose a risk of entrapment or strangulation to infants and toddlers to over 375,000.

The wooden cribs contain slats that can break, creating a dangerous gap in which a baby could get stuck, fall out of the crib or strangle themselves.

All of the Jardine cribs were sold at Babies R Us, Toys R Us, KidsWorld or Geoffrey Stores throughout the United States since January 2002 for between $150 and $450.

The first Jardine baby crib recall was issued on June 25, 2008 for 28 different models of cribs, involving approximately 320,000 cribs. The action was taken after the manufacturer became aware of at least 42 incidents where crib slats and spindles broke, creating a potentially life-threatening hazard. At least four of the reports involved cases where babies became trapped in the gaps created by the broken cribs.

Since then, an additional 19 reports of problems with the Babies R Us Jardine cribs have been received by the U.S. CPSC, leading to an additional recall for three more models sold since March 2004, including:

• Model DA715BC – Dark Pine Olympia Lifetime with Date Code: 2/04 – 1/07
• Model 0108L00 – Antique Walnut Capri Single Crib with Date Code: 7/06 – 11/07
• Model 0308C00 – White Capri Lifetime Crib with Date Code: 12/05 – 11/07

Out of the new reports where the crib slats broke, 9 of these incidents occurred while the infant or toddle was in the crib. One report involved a 22 month old child who fell through the gap, but the U.S. CPSC indicates that no injuries have been reported.

Issues with crib safety have resulted in the recalls of millions of cribs in recent years, including one of the largest crib recalls in U.S. history for nearly 1.6 million Delta cribs in October 2008. That recall was issued due to problems with safety and spring pegs, which were found to allow the drop side of the crib to disengage creating a dangerous gap that killed at least two babies.

In December 2008, an investigative report published by the Chicago Tribune suggested that the Delta crib recall could have been issued years earlier if incidents in 2002, 2004 and 2005 had been properly tied together and investigated.

In 2007, the U.S. CPSC indicates that they changed the way they handle safety complaints, allowing them to better identify patterns among every safety complaint.